Confessions of Successful Asian Women

Sukhi Singh is the founder of the multi-million dollar Indian food company, Sukhi’s. Sukhi is responsible for bringing Indian food to mainstream America through venues like farmer’s markets, Wholefoods and Costco. Sukhi faced a lot of twists and turns in her entrepreneurial journey including a failed deli but she rose up with the help of her family. Listen to the podcast to learn more about her incredible journey from holding a blender and a bucket to running a successful enterprise.

Optimist. Dreamer. South Asian Fashion Game Changer. Tia Bhuva created the Cancan skirt and Saree Silhouette to wear under the traditional 6 yard saree. Tia gained influence among South Asian women when her tutorials on various saree draping styles skyrocketed in popularity and inspired Disney Princess looks, casual looks and re-purposed the silk saree. From formal occasions to casual cool, Tia’s styles continue to make the saree accessible and easy to wear for the everyday 21st century...

Mai Ton brings over 15 years of experience to her role as VP of People for tech companies. Mai transformed companies into helping them become "Great Places to Work" according to Fortune magazine. She is a frequent speaker and shares her HR leadership and management experience to help others in the competitive landscape specific to Silicon Valley.

Yasmine Khan leads Design Research at Credit Karma in San Francisco where she brings the financial journeys of real people from diverse backgrounds into the workplace. She is a budding stand up comic. In 2014, Yasmine lost her brother to a heroin overdose. This profound loss has brought urgency to her drive to work with institutions to elevate the importance of making personal connections with the "people behind the numbers" as we work to understand and solve social problems

Nancy Hoque is a multipotentialite, as she is a woman of many different interests and creative pursuits in life. Nancy was a solutions engineer, designing and aiding the sales of mission critical communications for the Federal Government and Department of Defense (DOD) space, she was the founder of a modest fashion scarf ecommerce business, sixteenR scarves, and she is pursuing a Masters of Business at the prestigious Hass School of Business in Berkeley, California.

Minara Rahman is the founder of Hijabi Life, a Muslim lifestyle blog about being Muslim in America, food, fashion, beauty, and parenting. As a Muslim American in social media, she felt a void of Muslim lifestyle blogs particularly for women of different sizes. She gets candid about the hurdles and challenges of working in the professional space.

Dian Alyan started her career as an engineer for the leading multinational company, Proctor Gamble. On December 26, 2004, the tsunami devastated Indonesia taking 250,000 lives with it. Dian lost forty family members in the tsunami disaster. Suddenly, there were 25,000 orphans in her town alone who needed homes. Dian channeled her pain and grief into finding her mission in life. The tsunami led Dian to find GiveLight.org where built homes for more than 800 orphaned children in 11 countries...

Zahra Noorbakhsh is a Feminist Muslim, Iranian-American comedian and the cohost of the award winning podcast #GoodMuslimBadMuslim. She has her own one woman standup show and she was a contributor to the NY Times Featured anthology, “Love InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women”.

Melanie Elturk made the hijab (Muslim head scarf) mainstream through her modest fashion brand, Haute Hijab. She launched the company in 2010 and since then, it’s the fastest growing modest fashion line with close to 200K followers on Instagram and Snapchat. Haute Hijab has been featured in Elle, New York Times and the Today show.

Zahra Billoo is a civil rights attorney and the Executive Director of the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American‐Islamic Relations (CAIR‐SFBA). Zahra is a leading voice on the civil rights of American Muslims. She led the fight against the Muslim ban and spoke at the Women's March.

Twenty four years ago, Sandhya Patel broke into one of the toughest industries as a minority woman. Sandhya Patel changed the face of meteorology as she broke barriers with hard work, perseverance and grit to be where she is today.

Nafisa Bakkar and her sister, Selina, launched Amaliah from their mother's kitchen table in 2015 as an Instagram page to curate Muslim-friendly clothes from top brands. Since then, that page has grown into an online community of more than 250,000 Muslim women. Amaliah has been featured in Forbes, CNN and Wired.

Dr. Sonia Patel practices psychiatry in Honolulu and is the author of the critically acclaimed young adult novel, “Rani Patel in Full Effect”. She is especially passionate about helping teens work through the emotional trauma of sexual, physical, and mental abuse. Sonia loves to rap and write rhymes in her spare time.

Listen to Popinjay’s CEO Saba Gul, who started out from MIT in a career in engineering and is now making a global social impact through connecting indigenous craft to global markets, and to connect the makers of products to their consumers.

Dr. Kimberly Chang is an activist family doctor who has been leading the way for policy change to prevent human trafficking and provide better health care for young Asian girls who have been victims of sex trafficking. Based at Asian Health Services in Oakland, Dr. Chang is on the forefront of building the capacity of community health centers to care for patients who are at-risk or are being trafficked. She even co-founded HEAL Trafficking, an organization acronym that stands for “Health,...

Join me for this special episode of Confessions of Successful Asian Women. Mentoring is my confession for success. Hear directly from two global female leaders about their experience working in the US and discovering their leadership voice through the TechWomen program, an initiative of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. TechWomen’s mission is to empower, connect, and support the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering and...

A surfing trip that became a mission to help refugees in Lesvos, Greece, listen to the heartwarming story of Dr. Shinkai Hakimi. A firm believer in the power of education for all, Dr. Hakimi, a native of Afghanistan and a former refugee, grew up in a small farm town in Iowa and is now a leading pulmonologist in Northern California. She is a board of director of the non-profit, Sahar, which aims to get more girls in school in Afghanistan.

Hosai Mojaddidi is the co-Founder of www.mentalhealth4muslims.com where she advocates for and writes about various mental health related topics tailored for Muslims. She has served the American-Muslim community for nearly 20 years as an activist, writer/editor, mediator, interfaith organizer, and public speaker, covering a variety of topics including women's issues, marriage/family, education, self development, interfaith bridge building, and spirituality.

Hosai Mojaddidi is the co-Founder of www.mentalhealth4muslims.com where she advocates for and writes about various mental health related topics tailored for Muslims. She has served the American-Muslim community for nearly 20 years as an activist, writer/editor, mediator, interfaith organizer, and public speaker, covering a variety of topics including women's issues, marriage/family, education, self development, interfaith bridge building, and spirituality.

Hosai Mojaddidi is the co-Founder of www.mentalhealth4muslims.com where she advocates for and writes about various mental health related topics tailored for Muslims. She has served the American-Muslim community for nearly 20 years as an activist, writer/editor, mediator, interfaith organizer, and public speaker, covering a variety of topics including women's issues, marriage/family, education, self development, interfaith bridge building, and spirituality.